I grew up Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, with my parents and two sisters, Sara and Aviva.

I went to St Helen's School, Northwood at age 8, and stayed there until 16. I was more inclined towards the arts while St Helen's focussed more on academic and sporty girls.

I got my O'levels in 1985 and left to do my A'Levels at Fine Art Tutors in Belsize Park. The subjects I chose were Art, History of Art and French.

I decided that I wanted to be a sculptor and took extra classes with a well known sculptress and was in the same class as fashion designer, Nicole Fahri.

In 1987 I did a year pre-foundation course at Camden Arts Centre on the Finchley Road and the following year got onto a Foundation course in art at Chelsea School of Art.

Although I loved my year at Chelsea, I began to waver in terms of my career choice and decided it would be wiser to get a bit of experience working before going to University.

I did a few short term jobs including working for a PR Company and waitressing at Ronnie Scotts.

My first "proper job" was at the Programmes Group, Corby, a marketing group who employed Buddhist ideas and philosphies. I started off as a Direct Marketing Executive, and ended up as Manager of Front of House.

However, the 1990s recession hit hard, and the company could not keep going at full tilt and asked for voluntary redundancies. I decided it was a good time to go back to studies and managed to get onto a new course in Environmental Policy and Management at City Poly...